The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus.
An increasing number of vehicles provided with an automatic control function of a traveling speed have been on market. For example, vehicles provided with a cruise control device which automatically maintains the vehicles at a given speed have become common, and an automatic driving device having a traveling speed control and a steering angle control has also been put in practical use.
JP2014-139756A discloses a device which slows down a vehicle while avoiding an immediate slowdown, for example, when a vulnerable road user, such as a pedestrian, a bicyclist, or a motorcyclist, exists ahead of the vehicle, and the vehicle may pass near the vulnerable road user although there is no possibility of a collision with the vulnerable road user.
Here, due to the cruise control and/or the automatic driving, the vehicle may pass considerably near the vulnerable road user at a remarkably high speed. The vulnerable road user may then be surprised by the vehicle passing by, and the vulnerable road user may fall on the ground in some extreme cases. Those situations are not desirable. Thus, JP2014-139756A also discloses that the vehicle passes near the vulnerable road user at a reduced speed. However, a simple uniform speed reduction may often be unnecessary when the vehicle passes near the vulnerable road user and, thus, a certain countermeasure is desired.